A weekend away

I spent the weekend just gone with a group of stitching friends in the middle of nowhere (actually it was just a farm with limited cell phone coverage). We had great fun and as I had just finished something and wasn't quite sure what to concentrate on next I took all my WIP's and the eight projects I had ready to start (I thought it was 7, but I couldn't get my math to add up so finally worked out I had my original number wrong). I spread them all out on a table and looked at them. I tried to pick one to concentrate on but just couldn't.

So I stitched on a couple of old ones and tried to start all of the new ones. Three of these are for gifts and they turned out to be the ones I really want to work on. So there may not be too many posts from me until they are finished as I don't want to spoil the surprises (although one's not a surprise really as the recipient does know about it).

I'm going to be making a few posts soon with updates on what I stitched on (I must admit to talking far more than stitching though so progress is rather minimal). I did manage to put a few stitches in a couple of existing WIP's, and I started 6 new ones - one of which after one stitch I decided I hated the fabric, so undid it and gave the fabric away. Another (new one) I didn't stitch on after I saw a new fabric from Sparklies that would be perfect for it so that's awaiting new fabric as well. The last new one I didn't touch.

I also looked at another WIP that I had received part done from someone else and it was pointed out to me by someone there who had stitched it that it didn't look like there was enough room to finish the piece. So we measured and sure enough it would have been a very tight squeeze. So I unpicked that one and used the fabric to practice dyeing, so I did reduce my WIP's by one, even if it wasn't the normal way.

On the Sunday we had the chance (thanks to Kate of Sparklies) to have a go at dyeing our own fabric. I did three pieces.

The first was a piece of medium green fabric (from the piece unpicked) so it was iffy if it would work. It didn't really - or at least needs more coats of dye to even have a chance of working. I think I also managed to cut a thread when unpicking so need to have a think about what to do with the piece.

The second I wanted a pumpkin orange, after having a play with the fabric viewer to see what colour would be best for Fairy Dreams (the one I unpicked). It came out great, but I'm having a hard time believing it's going to work. I sort of feel that it's going to overpower the design, or clash with it - even though on the fabric viewer it really made the design pop.

The third piece I was aiming for bright lime green with a starburst in the middle - tie dyed type thing. It didn't quite come out right, but I've got some ideas on how to do it next time (if I'm brave enough to try again).